This invention relates generally to athletic training devices, and has particular reference to a novel drag producing belt for swimmers training for competition.
In training competitive swimmers, it has been recognized that the development of the swimming muscles ranks in importance with the swimmer's technique and wind conditioning. One method of development that has been advocated is weight lifting but this is not completely satisfactory because the muscular development does not really correspond to that required for swimming. At the present time, many coaches believe that a more appropriate way to develop swimming muscles is to increase the weight that the swimmer must carry and/or the resistance to his movement through the water while actually swimming laps during training. This strengthens the swimming muscles and the swimmer's endurance and thus improves his competitive ability.
Heretofore, swimmers have added weight and increased drag during practice sessions by wearing several T-shirts and shorts or cut off jeans over their regular suits. This means that extra garments must be carried to practices and extra wet garments must be carried back home. Increasing weight and drag by wearing additional garments can also have the disadvantage of distributing the added weight and drag unevenly on the swimmer which can increase the tendency for his body to roll or dip.
As an alternative to wearing extra garments during training, various mechanical attachments have been proposed for swimmers such as those shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,142,485; 3,517,930 and 3,584,870. The devices disclosed in the first two patents are somewhat cumbersome and awkward and do not distribute the drag evenly over the swimmer's body. The pocket attachment disclosed in the third patent, which is the closest prior art known to the applicants, also fails to distribute the drag evenly and has the further disadvantage that it can slip out of position and throw the swimmer out of balance.
Along with U.S. Pat. No. 3,584,870, supra, the closest prior art known to the applicants is U.S. Pat. No. 4,071,236, granted Jan. 31, 1978 to George Oprean, one of the applicants herein. The Oprean patent discloses a swimmer's drag suit adapted to be worn over a regular tank suit and provided with a plurality of drag creating pockets on its front and back sides. The pockets on both sides of the suit are arranged so as to be symmetrical with the centerline of the suit whereby the drag forces are uniformly distributed over the swimmer's body and there is no imbalance.